Improving Pupils’ Recognition of Letters and Their Corresponding Sounds Using HVAM Flash Cards

Abstract

Building a strong foundation in basic literacy skills is very important among young learners because it will help in reading and writing development later on. Alphabetic knowledge starts off with recognizing letter shapes, naming the letters, sounding the letters then blending the sounds to form words are crucial basic steps in reading in order to make sure that the pupils are literate and fast reader. Unfortunately, there are pupils who having problems with it. This particular study focuses on the problem of pre-schoolers who are not able to recognize the shape of the letters, letter names and its corresponding sounds. A qualitative research with case study design and purposive sampling of five participants were used in this study.  This research uses document analysis as an instrument to collect the data before and after intervention Based on the findings before intervention, it was found that the pupils did not able to recognize around 12 letters of the alphabets and sounds.  Therefore, this study is conducted to overcome the problem through the use of HVAM Flashcards. HVAM Flashcards incorporate haptic, visual, audio and meteorological elements to help the pupils in mastering the letters and its sounds. Letter/ sound identification score sheet from Michigan Literacy Progress Profile (2000) adapted from An Observation Survey of Early Literacy Achievement by Marie M. Clay is used to record the ability to recognize letters and its sounds among participants. As a result, HVAM flash cards are very helpful to solve the reading problems of pre-schoolers as well as it is also helpful for the teachers and parents.